This invention relates generally to material handling systems and, more particularly, to gravity conveying systems, namely flow bays.
A flow bay is an area filled with a series of parallel gravity conveying rails, known as flow rails, which are spaced apart and usually arranged in lanes. The lanes may be fed from a perpendicular feed conveyor and typically terminate in a loading dock or other destination point. In this manner, boxed or crated goods, typically relatively large in size, such as appliances, furniture, cabinets, and the like, can be manually transported down one of the lanes of the flow bay by a slight manual push.
Conventionally, such flow bays have been manufactured by erecting a series of lateral support beams on the subsurface and attaching the flow rails to the support beams such as by clamping or welding. The area between the flow rails is typically provided with a walking surface made up of plywood sheets which is also supported by the cross members.
The difficulty with the known flow bay construction technique is primarily that it is extremely labor-intensive to erect. Often, it is necessary to replace a previous flow bay during a plant shutdown period, which may be a relatively short period, such as three or four days. This is necessary in order to have the flow bay operational again after the shutdown. Because of the labor intensity in erecting the prior known flow bays, it has been extremely difficult to erect an entire flow bay in a relatively short period of time. Additionally, the support surfaces of such prior flow bays, while accommodating the movement of persons on the plywood support surfaces, were not necessarily safe. When a fluid is spilled on such surface, it could result in the surface becoming slippery, thus possibly contributing to a fall. Furthermore, the human support surface was significantly below the flow rails which made lateral movement along the flow bay difficult at best.